The first cases of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared at the end of 2019, in China.

In only two months, it spread all over the world, starting to cause consequences in every industry, including wind energy. Electricity is one of the pillars of our society without which it will be impossible to live normally for a long time. When it comes to renewable energy, this is even more significant. It contributes to one of the current top political priorities, the decarbonization and environmental sustainability of the world economies.

 As the number of affected countries with Coronavirus multiplied, the World Health Organization declared this outbreak as a pandemic. Consequently, many countries have already decreed a state of alert or, even, a state of emergency. Government and institutions weren’t prepared for the recent events, and, inevitably, the Coronavirus outbreak started affecting people’s lives and businesses.

 The consequences of this virus already affected the wind energy industry. This is a sector that comprehends both the industrial side of the manufacturing of the turbines as well as the services side of the personnel working on the wind farms. Therefore, and given the nature of our core activities, Endiprev’s field teams will not be able to adopt one of the most common containment measures, that is, working from home. A significant part of our job is performed at the source where electricity generation takes place, inside the wind turbine. Hence, we did carefully reassess and implement all risk assessments and strategies that can help us contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Endiprev takes action to protect employees from Coronavirus

In the face of this adversity, Endiprev has immediately implemented the following set of measures for the containment of Coronavirus within our range of action:

• Workers’ mobility is reduced to the minimum and strictly necessary, within projects and office personnel, particularly the use of air travel and public transportation.
• Within the scope of each ones’ professional tasks, travel should only occur when strictly necessary.
• When traveling for professional activities, workers should remain socially isolated as much as possible, including in off-work periods.
• In the strictly necessary travels, our internal policy for the priority use of public transport changed. We are now giving more priority to private transportation (employees’ own or rented vehicles) whenever possible. Flight selection should minimize stopovers and connections for essential and unavoidable business trips.
• All morning daily Health and Safety meetings (EHS Toolbox) should address the COVID-19 epidemic and the precautions to consider. The teams should always ask if there is anyone with symptoms.
• When planning for the works/projects, our field teams must be maintained stable with the same team members for as long as possible to avoid contacts between different people.
• Voluntary “quarantine”: After traveling, workers should stay at home for as long as possible, to identify signs of symptoms. Workers visiting company offices must notify the contact person at the office at least one day in advance in order to prepare the visit according to all health and safety precautions needed.
• Workers should use nonphysical means (such as telephone, teleconference, videoconference, etc.) for interpersonal contacts. The exception goes to those that require the physical presence of people. When it is not possible to keep a safety distance of two meters, workers should use a mask.
• Acquire and make available to all workers personal protective equipment for the hygiene, and disinfection of people (masks, gloves, glasses).

Other general recommendations

Our Health and Safety team is constantly sharing general recommendations of the World Health Organization with our technicians still working on the field. Before going to a new project, they have training sessions to learn all the procedures they must do on-site. We are also closely following the recommendations of government agencies all over the world.

In these challenging times that we must keep social distancing, communication is even more important. Our Health and Safety team keeps daily contact with our teams on-site. That helps to understand if the preventive measures are in place and to make them feel as safe as possible. For those working from home, once a week, we schedule video calls to encourage moments of distraction and connection.

At Endiprev, we are certain these measures will be able to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. Our main concern is not only keeping our agreements but also protect the people working to keep the company going.